Sunday Studio Visit

I missed last weeks Sunday Studio visit – sorry about that, excuses abound – ummm

Anyway this Sunday I am unpacking a bonfire tin saggar firing I did yesterday, and am happy with the results.

It is Spring here in Australia, and living on a rural property means cleaning up undergrowth and debris before the bushfire season, and it needs to be done before fore restrictions come in – so a bonfire it is. Whenever we have a bonfire I always make a few things to put into tin saggars – small pots, beads, pendants. You can check out some previous posts about this firing method here.

I use mostly sawdust in the saggars, so that most of the surfaces carbonise into a silky black colour. I also add copper and salt, and sometimes wrap things in copper wire – this can create subtle red, blues and greens on the surface… and this time I was lucky enough to achieve this on some of the beads.

I will be cleaning and polishing the beads during the week, and will share some detailed pics of the end results then. Eventually these beads will find their way onto my Etsy shop as necklaces, earrings and bracelets.

In the meantime here are a few pic of the process 🙂

The ingredients

Layering the tin saggar

Into the fire

Building the fire

The next afternoon